Angus King to host round table on painkillers as gateway to addiction

PORTLAND — U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, will host a roundtable discussion on prescription painkillers and the role they play in heroin and other opioid addictions in Maine on Tuesday.

King is taking the conversation to the state’s largest city, which has also been hit hard by heroin overdoses and drug-related crimes. The roundtable will start at 10 a.m. Nov. 24 and will be hosted by MaineHealth, at 100 Free St.

King’s roundtable, the second he has hosted since August, is expected to focus more specifically on the use and abuse of prescription painkillers as a gateway to addiction, according to a news release issued by King’s office Monday.

“According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, four in five heroin users started out by misusing prescription opioid pain medications,” the release stated. “Additionally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 44 people in the U.S. die each day from an overdose of prescription pain medication. In fact, more people die every day from drug overdoses than from traffic crashes, with the majority of drug overdose deaths caused by prescription opioids and heroin.”

During the discussion, King is expected to announce his support for legislation that would better enable health care providers and public health officials to prevent prescription drug abuse. King will also announce his plan to introduce a new proposal to help Americans more quickly and safely discard excess unused prescription drugs.